aha! health care!

Mairead and I tried out a new urgent care place yesterday.

due to my recent continued illness, yesterday at work I was in pain and couldn’t take it anymore so I looked up my insurance company website and found the next closest urgent care facility.  I also checked out the urgent care place’s website, and it was actually professional and not crappy.  a good sign.  I left work early (as I wasn’t getting anything done anyway and was totally distracted by being seriously uncomfortable) and Mairead drove me there.

surprise surprise, this urgent care place was not in a run-down apartment building, but in an office park with many other health care facilities.  the waiting room was clean, with a good amount of nurses that looked like they actually knew what they were doing and did it well.  there were professionally printed signs, not notices scribbled on 8.5×11 printer paper.  they even asked for actual medical information on the intake forms!  there was a bit of a wait, as I didn’t call ahead and my insurance took a long time to be authorized or something, but the girl at the desk made sure I knew that they hadn’t forgotten about me.  then, when I did get in to see a doctor (or nurse practitioner or whoever it was, I was not REALLY paying attention, her name was Karen and she was smarter than me) everyone was nice and clean and intelligent and did the actual tests that they needed to do and gave me information and listened to what was wrong with me and then called in my prescription to kroger and told me to come back if that didn’t work.  and I do feel better, though not as much better as she told me I should feel by this point, which makes me nervous.

not only was it a more enjoyable urgent care experience than our previous excursion, but it was cheaper.  Mairead had to pay $25 for a worthless examination that made her feel dirty.  I paid $14.60 for actual help, plus $4 for a prescription, so I got meds and still came out ahead!

holy crap that’s a lot of friends

so mairead and I headed up to urbana this past weekend for two days of fun and friends.  we stayed with the ale/ixes who have a spare bed/bedroom, so we went out with them friday night to murphys, our preferred college hangout.  good times, as always.  saturday morning I had planned to go for a run around the old neighborhood but I forgot my running shoes so was forced to play video games instead (darn it!).

I showed Mairead around campus (well, part of campus.  it’s a big place).  she was quite impressed with the Newman Center, as most people are.  construction is coming right along on the expansion.  we met up with Brian for lunch at Radio Maria downtown.  mmm tasty.  we spent the afternoon with alex and alix and alex’s little brother hanging out, then went out for a drink to cowboy monkey as they have outdoor seating.  for dinner we went to the McGinnis’ for a cookout with Ed and Taylor.  met the new McGinnis child, she’s only two weeks old and was very small and cute and funny.

saturday night was fever formal, which Mairead and I attended with the successful plan of tearing it up.  we partied like rock stars (only minus the destruction and drug abuse).  many people that I know and love were there.  it was rather nice because Mairead already knew quite a few of them (from trips to chicago/half-marathoning) so she felt comfortable and had a good time as well.  there was dancing and singing and story-telling and lots of photo-taking.  everyone thought it was a particularly good fever formal and Mairead and I were sad when it ended (I was afraid for a moment that I wouldn’t be able to get her to leave at the point when they were kicking everyone out).

yesterday we had breakfast at courier which was good but which I couldn’t really enjoy due to feeling ill (not caused by the partying the night before, I didn’t drink much so don’t get that idea).  I spent the rest of the day yesterday sleeping/throwing up.  woooo.  apparently alix was struck by a similar affliction yesterday morning as well; she suspects food poisoning.

I like Urbana and I like my friends.  it was a good weekend, and we both wished it could have lasted longer.

you knew it would happen

Mairead and I have cable now, which is both a blessing and a curse.  anyway, there are now two shows that I watch regularly, and know at what time and on what channel they play.  battlestar galactica, which I’ve mentioned previously, and Bravo’s Top Chef.

oh, top chef.  somehow, I love this show.  but is anyone really surprised?  I mean, there is some serious food on this show.  Mairead is not quite so into it as I am (as far as bravo goes, she prefers the real housewives of NYC) and in fact during last night’s crazy new episode Mairead read people magazine and then went to bed right before eliminations.  seriously?  It was such a good episode!  now that they’ve skimmed off some of the more uninteresting chefs and the numbers have dwindled, they can get down to some serious cooking.

Richard is the clear front runner, and my personal favorite.  he does crazy things with food but it’s not contrived or just done because he’s trying to please the judges.  he just is really good with random food pairings.  every week he totally brings it (except for that one unfortunate experience with the fish scales, but we won’t talk about that).  Unfortunately, the woman eliminated last night I think was totally robbed.  she was doing good things and I would have been interested to see her progress.  plus the two girls on the other team I don’t like as well and file under kitchen clutter.  she’s a totally better chef than them, I think.

Mairead really should appreciate the show more as it motivates me to get in the kitchen and make stuff.  although I’m sure she doesn’t look at the dishes they make and think “man, I want to eat THAT” the way that I do.  she’s more of a “what the crap?  why would anyone eat that?” type.  poor mairead, not obsessed with food…

ouch

I have a tendency to hurt myself and not realize the full magnitude of the injury until the next day.

yesterday I ran my hip into the corner of my desk.  it hurt quite bad at the time, causing me to yelp and jump up and down.  the pain passed, no worries.  however, I just realised that my thigh is a bit swollen and quite sore in that spot (as I knocked it against the desk again).  upon inspection in the bathroom I find that I have a scrape and a rather large bruise.  since the time when I injured myself, I’ve changed clothes a few times and showered, yet failed to notice the bruised area until now.  hmmm

then, a couple of weeks ago, I shut my leg in the car door.  hurt like the dickens, let me tell you.  the pointy bottom corner of the door hit me right in the calf.  I was wearing light trousers that day so I looked down to make sure I wasn’t bleeding and nothing showed, so I ran up to work and didn’t give it a moments thought.  I failed to discover the huge gouge on my leg until the following afternoon when I was stretching before my run.  again, I’d changed clothes several times and showered and never noticed a thing.  I have a scar there now, smaller than the original injury but still.  how did I hurt myself so badly that it left a scar and not notice an issue until ~24 hours later?  I’m oblivious.  and my leg hurts.

running out of time

so we have a little less than three months before our time here is done. and in that time I think I have four free weekends. four. it’s ridiculous.

this weekend, going to urbana for fun and fever. then, we’re on a mercy retreat (we’re secretly praying they lost our registration form), then to DC with amber and the rentals, then retreat at abbey of gethsemani in KY, then MVC transition retreat in PA, then Mairead’s birthday and travel craziness for the 4th, then possible fabulous weekend in Indy with steph and katharine, and then done. yikes.

how am I supposed to get everything done here that I want to get done with just four free weekends? I have to start working longer hours to make sure I get my americorps payout at the end. oh yeah, and figure out what happens next. that’s kind of a big one.